So Leela is obsessed by what we eat. She focuses in on it and grabs for it and tries to shove stuff in her mouth. This would be perfect for starting baby-led weaning if she were only a bit older than just 4 months.

I let her lick a melon today, and she loved it.

For BLW, the key is letting the baby put small pieces of the food into his or her own mouth, and clearly she isn't ready for that (her enthusiasm is greater than her fine motor skills), but I am wondering about your thoughts on letting her play a bit with fruits and veggies and just lick them or gum without actually consuming it. Is it too high an allergy risk?

I can't really find anything that doesn't say that you should wait until 6 months, but it seems kind of cruel given how much she wants to explore things, provided of course that it isn't actually dangerous.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

If you want to hold of on the food for a bit, give some of these items a try- (http://www.sensoryuniversity.com/ORAL-M ... ING_c6.htm) especially the Chew Stixx in flavors. It helps them to explore their oral/ motor impulses and in a safe way. My son refused food until 8 months, but my daughter seemed to want it at 3 months. I managed to hold off until 6 months, and offered her more breastmilk, along with some sensory toys (my son has sensory issues- we had them handy). It seemed to do the trick. I (personally) didn't want to give her food because it wasn't as nutritive as breastmilk for her age and might fill her tummy and not make her hungry for the good stuff.

The Emperor seemed interested in food when he was that age, so we let him try a few things-- a finger full of super ripe banana, a melon cube to lick. Once he actually got the food to his mouth, it turned out he wasn't really interested at all. He'd just push it back out with his tongue and not go back for it.

Anyway, we asked his pediatrician because we were like aaaah allergies and he was of the opinion that if you don't have a family history of severe food allergy, then low risk foods (basically everything but nuts and shellfish) are okay to try in small quantities.

He also told us that research is quite divided on the best way to avoid or even just predict food allergy. He's kind of a "try not to worry about it" doctor I guess.

The banana sock is great for keeping them busy, but has anyone figured out how to satisfactorily clean that thing? I manually use a dish cloth and brush to scrub it, inside and out, with hot water. Then I run it through the dishwasher. Then I get rid of any dried crusties and wash it by hand again. I feel like no matter what there is always banana goo somewhere in the darned things. Keeps Vi quiet while I make my coffee, though, so recycled banana goo she gets fed. I am a terrible mother.

I just read a really great book called Feeding Baby Green that's pretty BLW-ish. He recommends letting your baby hold and play with fruits and veggies (he thinks lemons are the perfect baby toy!) before they start trying stuff so that food isn't just something that comes out of a jar or blender. The book is really research-based which I like (though a lot of it is animal), and just fascinating. BabyEnchilada wants to eat everything for the last month (he turned 5 months yesterday), and we've let him nom on a kale leaf, collard green, carrot, celery, apple, pear, fork-smashed banana & avocado, and tastes of sauces on our food like marinara sauce, enchilada sauce, and channa masala.

When my daughter Juniper was about 4-5 months, before we'd given her any solids she loved holding and gumming whole carrots and celery stalks. Also big pieces of lemon or orange rind, which I thought was weird, but whatever keeps her busy I'm all about it.

So yeah, Vi has discovered Tings and taken to ripping them out of people's hands with way more force than you'd think 17 pounds of baby could muster. Healthy food is already way less interesting than junk. She's definitely putting the "baby-led" in BLW.

Malka almost choked herself on a strip of red bell pepper today. She wasn't so much eating it as teething on it and she got a chunk loose. The part I'm missing in all of this is how babies will avoid choking themselves to death, particularly since they don't necessarily understand the idea of swallowing solids.

Malka also really loves playing with oranges! We let her suck on a peel once and she was absolutely in heaven (until of course she chomped off a bit and again, we feared choking).

Turn baby over onto your knee, belly side down, with your arm supporting them underneath (elbow at crotch, hand on chin) and deliver back blows every 2 seconds 5 times. Turn baby over and use two fingers to deliver chest thrusts. Do this repeatedly until item is dislodged. If baby becomes unconscious, call 9-11 and administer cpr.

That link above has a great picture^^

I have had to use this once with my son and twice with my daughter as a result of them eating too fast- its so scary! I am thankful my job requires me to be certified or I wouldn't have known what to do! Definitely have you and any other caregivers take a class together. It is invaluable. :)

Thankfully I haven't needed anything like that yet! Whew. I hope I never do, but it's good to be prepared.

For what it's worth, poopiebaby is 20 months old, we did BLW, and he has never choked. In fact, when I tell other people who did traditional purees that he's never choked, they're all surprised, because every single one of them had to deal with choking when they started foods with more texture. That's one of the benefits of BLW - babies naturally have the chew reflex and the gag reflex. Once they get past the tongue-thrust stage, they will instinctively gum/chew the food they get into their mouths, and if a piece that is too big gets too far back, they will gag it out (gagging is normal and to be expected, and is obviously not the same as choking). Babies who have been fed purees have been taught to bypass their instinct and learn to swallow before they chew, which is why many of them struggle when foods with texture are later introduced. Obviously this isn't a rule and some BLW kids will choke, just like some kids fed purees never will.

I never made food specifically for poopiebaby. He has always just eaten what we were eating (cut or mushed to meet his developmental stage), unless it was clearly dangerous or too spicy or something like that. To the shock of onlookers, he was eating fairly spicy curries at 10 months and that remains one of his favourites now (along with sushi, raw onion, anything with tamarind, etc). He devours vegetables now, and will try (and love!) almost anything we offer. I really believe this is a result of the combination of experiencing different flavours through breastmilk, and never being trained to like bland purees rather than a variety of real foods. Oh, and of course luck, because I'm sure if we ever have another it will choke all the time and be picky and I'll be eating my words :)

I guess I didn't actually answer the original question - sorry! poopiebaby started showing interest around 5 months, and we definitely let him play with stuff we had (chunks of melon, wedges of apple, etc). As long as you're not sporking food into her mouth, she's not going to be getting much (or anything) actually into her belly. I definitely agree with the guidelines of 6 months, and also watching for the readiness signs (grabbing food, sitting up on their own, etc). But that is for feeding baby, not for letting them experiment. I say just trust your own judgement as to when to let her start tasting, because honestly sucking on a chunk of melon is not the same as putting rice cereal in your baby's bottle (ugh).

Today she grabbed celery sticks and happily gummed them until I took them away. She found this displeasing. But she still isn't sitting up on her own and definitely isn't trying to swallow anything. Just lots of drooly gumming.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Turn baby over onto your knee, belly side down, with your arm supporting them underneath (elbow at crotch, hand on chin) and deliver back blows every 2 seconds 5 times. Turn baby over and use two fingers to deliver chest thrusts. Do this repeatedly until item is dislodged. If baby becomes unconscious, call 9-11 and administer cpr.

That link above has a great picture^^

I have had to use this once with my son and twice with my daughter as a result of them eating too fast- its so scary! I am thankful my job requires me to be certified or I wouldn't have known what to do! Definitely have you and any other caregivers take a class together. It is invaluable. :)

By the way, it is super unusual that you will actually ever have to do chest thrusts...I don't have statistics on hand or anything but turning a baby upside down and doing some back blows is going to take care of the problem most of the time. Practicing on a fake baby definitely makes you feel prepared, even though the fake babies are super creepy.

_________________"No one with hair so soft and glossy could ever be bad at anything." - Tofulish

Someone is starting teething :) The eldest had a carrot in her hand for months straight-they'd even go into the tub with her. I let the babe chew on celery stalks, carrots (whole big fat ones), and brocoli stalks. He's 8 months old now, so I'm letting chew on apple cores, has a bit of avocado, dates, steamed brocoli, sweet potato/yam..

Ihave been letting Grey do this more and more. I keeps a close eye on him while he is eating and if I think he has a chunk in his mouth I just go in and grab it. He has only choked once and he coughed it out before I could hit his back, I had turned him over though.

Last night Malka enjoyed a bit of guacamole, sucked on a tortilla chip until it disintegrated, and chewed on a lemon wedge. She really has a thing for citrus! I felt a little bad about the tortilla chip.